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NOW I'M SAD! That's my second-favorite food magazine, after Saveur.
If Saveur ever stops printing, I'm done with food magazine subscriptions.

hoping that they at least let me roll over my subscription to bon appetit -- we just renewed!

Ack! I subscribe to Gourmet AND Bon Apetit. Wonder what I'll get stuck with now. First Domino, House and Garden, and now Gourmet. Big Thumbs down.

WTF?!! The end of an institution....

Crazy.

It's true that Gourmet has been getting on my nerves ever since RR became editor.

But still.

Crazy.

I was deciding between Gourmet and BA...now I don't have to choose, though it makes me nervous to commit to any magazine subscriptions these days!

Whhhat? I love their online content, and their last mixed drink feature was terrific. Will that content be lingering, or should I find a good way to archive it right away?

I think my Domino-transfered subscription will expire in October, so I will miss the November issue (can't find it here in Europe).

I have been wondering if it was dying ever since I got my Domino-replacement subscription to it, as it sure isn't the magazine I remember! There are practically no ads (no secret why it is dying), and the shoots, while pretty in a nouveau-hippie sort of way, are all, well, THE SAME. Haven't been inspired to cook a single thing from it in all the months I have had a subscription.

Looks like Ruth Reichl killed Gourmet...

...yeah, sure, magazines as a whole are struggling because of the internet, but I the others are still around and kicking, and Gourmet was the grandaddy of them all, the cream of the crop... Just never clicked with her editorial direction....

Their online content though, is superior to everyone else's.

Damn! I wish this weren't happening!!

NPR says that Gourmet online content will remain. So there is at least that.

What? boo! I just subscribed through a purchase at Sur Lat Table! I haven't even got my first issue yet. This stinks - I was so excited about it!

WHAT! I just got into reading Gourmet! The website is good, but just not the same as reading the actual magazine with all those beautiful photos :(

All, I've heard people mentioning this several times, so I had to say something finally: you don't have to get stuck with another magazine. When Domino folded, I simply asked for a refund and received one.

My thoughts are with all the gifted people who may be learning they are now out of a job.

Gourmet has been an institution for years.

dammit.

Ugh, I'm just sick about this: http://www.freckledcitizen.com/2009/10/mourning-gourmet.html

This is a bummer. The magazine provided such wonderful inspiration for cooking, eating and traveling. It will be missed.

"A little slice of beauty and inspiration will go with it."

An institution. Gone. Will miss the sight of it.

I just signed up for a subscription too! I had yet to receive my first issue, but was hoping I'd get the November one. I already subscribe to Bon Appetit as well. I wonder what they'll do....

I am very sad. :(

This is such sad news for me!

I've actually really enjoyed Ruth Reichl's Gourmet. I felt she did a good job of maintaining the gravitas of a magazine considered to be an institution while at the same time making it relevant and interesting to today's cooks. Also, the magazine has featured some fantastic food writing from people like John T Edge, Francis Lam and let's not forget the controversial Consider the Lobster article by the late David Foster Wallace.

I think this reflects more on what's happening to the magazine industry and less on the quality of Gourmet. While I equally adore Gourmet's online content, I have yet been able to have the same experience cuddling up with a laptop on my couch or bringing it into the bathtub. And since I stare at a screen most of my working day, a magazine offers a much needed break.

RIP Gourmet. I will miss you.

The problem with Gourmet under Ruth Reichl, which no one here seems to be discussing (maybe no one read Gourmet in the '80s?) is that it used to be a magazine focussed on COOKING.

There were wonderful recipes that really, really worked, and were geared to people who really wanted to cook something new and different. It was in the same vein as Julia Child books and the Time-Life Foods of the World series.

I still cook from many recipes from the '80s and '90s that i found in Gourmet -- they are excellent.

But under Ruth Reichl, Gourmet became more about EATING than cooking. One of my favourite features was "Gastronomie sans Argent", but she got rid of it along with a number of other regular features that I enjoyed.

The food politics angle it covered was important, but some of the travel writing was weak. The photography was the best in the business, but the food styling and concept were too much in one vein.

I believe that if she had continued to appeal to cooks in addition to foodies, Gourmet would still be viable.

I can't say I will miss the magazine it has not held my attention for a while. I do like Ruth Reichl and its too bad for those that have lost their jobs. It is sad news because I know so many loved the magazine.

I loved the magazine in the 80's and 90's and I still have a few issues from that time that I use over and over. More recently I felt the recipes became a bit too much and too meat focused I tend to eat more healthy.


I thought Saveur would be the promising one for a good read but that is getting dummied down issue by issue.

I feel like one of a few who love RR. I adore the way she talks about food. This breaks my heart - I love Gourmet, I love the Road Food section, I will really miss this in my magazine and cooking rotation!

so very sad! my favorite magazine....

I started my subscription when I was still in high school, back in 1977. I still have all those issues. I stopped when Ruth Reichl took over - it seemed to lose its focus on food and more on travelouge and celebrity authors. I learned to cook by reading Gourmet and Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's the end of an era.

I haven't read Gourmet magazine for ages, it shifted away from my own food interests so I stopped subscribing, but I'm so sad for the employees...

I am so disappointed. I only just started subscribing a few months ago.

That being said, I agree with some other commenters in that sometimes the writing was brilliant (especially the food politics stuff) and sometimes it was terrible. Remember the alphabet recipe issue? Awful. No articles at all, just weird recipes. Can't say that I'm surprised that their advertisers didn't want to support the magazine. Still, it's always very sad to see such an institution die. Hopefully someday they'll revive it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
It's 2009 and attention spans are VERY, VERY short these days. Gourmet is one of MANY print casualties within the past 3yrs and until many of these companies make the transition (as seamless as possible) to areas of NEW MEDIA (social networks, streaming video/audio, iPhone apps, etc.) and create content as compelling as their print content was, we'll continue to see these "heavyweights" fold....Some may have thought that Gourmet going away would NEVER HAPPEN, but we live in different times and as I said before, attention spans are short and if you don't capture people, they will divert their attention elsewhere.

I also LOVED the articles in Gourmet, but I'm afraid they did not embrace the NEW MEDIA model as soon as they should have and what resulted was inevitable. :(

I called Gourmet's customer service (not that it matters), and told them that I would never subscribe to a Conde Nast magazine again (again, not that it matters to them).

The way that they treat their employees and their subscribers is horrendous.

I read that gourmet was closing down and I just thought: that's sad! Then I made a fast search on the web to try to understand why. Ah, so it was the fine management consultants at Mckinsey that came up with this? Then it's fine since they are among the finest and most brilliant people on the universe! Great students, ambitious and hard working! Those are the type of peoples that are running banks, stock markets, big corporate firms, lehman brothers, etc! Ah, they are either bankrupt or in a financial crisis?

I can start today at Gourmet! Is it for sale?

My late wife had the subscription since the 1970's and I continued it and now I am so sad.
Can we not somehow buy Gourmet, all of us, with donations, subscriptions etc. and turn it into a new age medium on the web? We can all blog on it, we can retain some of the excellent employees, I'd hate to see all this talent and all the history and treasure trove of recipes and experience go to waste. Any ideas? Do we have a volunteer venture capitalist in our midst?

The reason that all these magazines are dying is not the internet per se, it is the economic model on which they are based -- advertizing.

In Europe, newspapers and magazines are supported primarily through subscriptions. If we were willing to pay more for our favourite publications, it could be a viable model here as well. *If* a publisher were to try it.

But let's face it -- Condé Nast is not exactly the poster child for a well-run corporation -- their lavish ways, extravagant spending, and bloated editorial salaries (getting rid of Anna Wintour and her clothing allowance alone probably would have saved Gourmet -- and likely Cookie too) got them into this situation. Just another example of the failings of the corporate American culture, including the way the review by McKinsey & Co. was done.

Not only am I depressed that Gourmet is gone, I have no idea what I'm going to do to fill the void that it will leave behind. I loved both cooking and reading Ruth Reichl's Gourmet, and I just don't see Bon Appetit and Saveur filling those gaps for me -- nothing to read in BA, and nothing interesting to cook there, either, and I remember Saveur being on the thin side, with less-than-yummy recipes. (I will still have my Cook's Illustrated subscription, but it's all recipes, no articles.)

Anyone have any suggestions for other food mags? What do you all think of Food & Wine? Anything else out there worth looking into?